


You really think I was mean?

by CiaraSky



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Another Pack - Freeform, Chicago, F/M, M/M, Siren, Supernatural Creatures, hellhound
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 20:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaraSky/pseuds/CiaraSky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek was off to Chicago with Cora to learn about the things that could await them back in Beacon Hills. He didn't think that those creatures would turn up so soon...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Stiles’ phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw that it was Scott calling.  
“Scott?” Stiles asked anxious.  
“Hey... you okay?”  
“Yeah, we’re okay. We’re all okay,” Stiles said relieved, looking around at the others. “How ‘bout you, you okay?”  
Scott looked at Derek, who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head as if to say ‘Well, don’t care about me’, and said “Sort of.”  
“You think you can come... get us?”  
“Yeah of course.”  
“Great, okay. Uhm... bring a ladder.” The others laughed. Stiles hung up and looked at them. “Scott will be here in some minutes,” he said smiling and then hugged his dad again. When their embrace broke apart, he looked at his dad with an earnest look and said: “You know, Dad, I’m really happy you’re still alive.”  
“I know Stiles. I know,” Papa Stilinski said with a wide smile on his face.  
“So... what now?” Isaac asked from the other side of the cellar.  
“What do you mean?” Allison asked in return.  
“I mean... that’s it? Do you think Derek and Scott defeated the Alpha Pack?”  
“Well... something definitely happened,” Chris said.  
“I bet Scott can enlighten us.”  
Waiting in the almost complete darkness, Stiles’ mind raced. He wanted to know what happened to Scott, to Lydia, to Cora and Derek but all he could do was wait. He looked around the cellar and smiled a little. His dad was safe. And so were Allison, Isaac, Scott, Allison’s dad and Scott’s mom. But he had no idea what would come afterwards. He remembered Dr Deatons’ words: ‘It will be a kind of darkness around your heart and permanent like a scar.’ At the moment he didn’t feel it but maybe that was just because he was so relieved that he found everyone to be alive.  
About ten minutes later Scott arrived.  
“Everyone’s alright?” he shouted through one of the holes in the ground.  
“Yeah buddy!” Stiles shouted back. “But be so kind and get us out of here, now! Will you?”  
They heard Scott laughing and saw the ladder sweeping down through a nearby opening in the ceiling. One after another emerged from the collapsed cellar, Stiles as the final one. When he was far enough up to look above the ground he almost lost his grip on the ladder. Derek stood beside Scott, talking to Isaac. Quickly Stiles climbed the last rungs and darted at Scott.  
“What is he doing here?” Stiles asked, casting a grim-faced glance at Derek.  
“Dude,” Scott said as he slapped Stiles’ chest with the back of his hand. “He helped defeating Jennifer. He’s on our side.”  
“Alright, alright,” Stiles gave in. “So, what happened actually?” At these words, the others turned towards Scott and Stiles.  
“Kali, the twins and Jennifer are dead,” Scott said. “But it was Jennifer who killed them.”  
“Scott,” Derek said, holding his mobile in his hand. “Cora just texted me that the twins are not dead. Just when I left with Jennifer they transformed back, so Cora and Lydia brought them to Dr Deaton.”  
“Well... let’s hope Aiden can convince Ethan to change sides,” said Isaac.  
“I think Ethan already has,” Derek interjected. “The only one who would still have control over him is Deucalion, but Scott and I threatened him.”  
“What did you do?” Melissa asked anxious, glancing rapidly from Scott to Derek and back.  
“It’s all right, mom,” Scott tried to sooth his mother. “Derek said that his mother once said that Deucalion was a man of vision once and that we hope he can be that man again. Then, I said that if he won’t, his renewed eyesight won’t...” But Scott couldn’t end because Isaac, Allison and Stiles all started to talk insistently to Scott.  
“Are you serious, Scotty?” Stiles asked.  
“You must be totally out of your mind,” Isaac said aghast.  
“How did that happen?” Allison finally asked.  
“It was Jennifer,” Derek defended Scott. “She did it so Deucalion could see her real face. In the end, it was him who killed Jennifer.”  
Everybody looked at each other, stunned.  
“So, what did you say to him, Scott?” Allison inquired.  
“I said that his renewed eyesight won’t help him because he will never see us coming.”  
Allison then flung her arms around Scott and embraced him in a tight hug.  
“You know, I know you’re strong, but I was also scared that I’d never see you again.”  
“Here I am,” Scott said with a smile and kissed Allison.  
Derek took an audible breath and Allison and Scott broke apart. He stepped past the others and pulled up the ladder, shouldered it and said: “I think all of us want to get out of here, right?”  
“Right,” some of them said and everybody started moving, the teenagers at the front.  
“So you’re sure that Deucalion will not start to build up a new pack of Alphas?” Stiles asked Scott.  
“Quite sure. I think we opened his eyes. Literally,” Scott laughed, causing his friends to join in.  
*  
The next evening, as Scott just slammed his rooms’ door shut in front of his dad, he got a call from Derek.  
“Hey Derek, what’s up?”  
Without beating around the bush, Derek said: “I want you to come to my loft, Scott, and tell Stiles, Isaac and Allison to come, too.”  
“Oh... okay. But what’s the matter?”  
“Just come around, okay?” Derek said deadpan.  
“Yeah.”  
Some minutes later Stiles picked up his phone and said with a sleepy voice: “Yo?”  
“Stiles? You asleep?” Scott asked, restraining a laugh.  
“Whaddaya want, Scott?”  
“You need to get up, mate. Derek wants to talk to us.”  
“Why?” Suddenly, Stiles sounded a lot more awake.  
“I don’t know. Just get up and pick me up, will you?”  
“Alright Scotty, but give me some minutes.”  
“Take your time,” Scott said, now not able to suppress a laugh anymore.  
Then, he called Allison and Isaac and headed downstairs, finding his mom and “dad” sitting at the kitchen table.  
“I’m out with Stiles, Mom.”  
“Where’re you’re going?” Melissa asked, resting her chin on her folded hands.  
“Uhm... bowling alley“, Scott lied, glancing at his dad.  
“Alright, darling. Have fun”, Melissa said smiling, watching Scott’s back as he left the room.  
Scott sat down on the front doors’ steps, waiting for Stiles to arrive. A few minutes later, the Jeep came to a halt in front of the house. Scott got up and climbed into the passenger seat.  
“Hey Scott.”  
“Hey, everything’s alright?”  
“Yeah, I’m just tired. My sleep rhythm is totally fucked up”, Stiles explained as he took off. “I go to bed around midnight but I only start to fall asleep at maybe two or three a.m., it sucks.”  
“Have you tried sleeping pills?”  
“No, but I’ll definitely use them if I can’t get it right within the next few weeks.”  
“You should positively do that. Senior year’s not going to be an easy one, you’ll need the sleep.”  
“I know, Scotty, I know.”  
Some minutes later Stiles and Scott arrived in front of the building where Derek’s loft was located. As they got out of the Jeep they noticed Allison’s car but didn’t say a thing about it, too curious about why Derek asked them to come.  
Standing in the elevator, Stiles asked: “Sooo... what about you and Allison?”  
“I think we’re back together, but we haven’t really talked about it yet.”  
“And what about Isaac?”  
“What’s the matter with him?”  
Stiles rolled his eyes.  
“Nothing gets past your werewolf senses, does it?”  
“Stiles, just tell me!”  
“Isaac’s totally crazy about Allison, haven’t you noticed at all?” Stiles asked stunned.  
“Obviously not,” Scott said, looking at his feet. “Oh damn it.”  
“It’ll all come out right, don’t worry,” Stiles said, padding Scott’s back. In that moment, the elevator doors opened and the boys stepped out, heading towards Derek’s loft. The door was open, so the boys went inside.  
Around the table sat Derek, Cora, Allison and Isaac, and Stiles immediately noticed that something was wrong. There were duffle bags at the end of Derek’s bed and everything looked uninhabited – not that it had ever looked inhabited much.  
“Sit down,” Derek demanded, pointing at the vacant chairs. So they did.  
“I know you’re all happy at the moment that we’ve defeated the Alpha pack,” Derek said after a moment of silence.  
“Actually half the pack’s still alive,” Stiles noted, which earned him disapproving looks from all of the others. “Just saying,” he said abashed.  
“Anyway,” Derek continued, “there’s still a lot more outside that we don’t know of and we cannot be sure that we will not have to deal with it in the future. So Cora and I made up a plan: we’re leaving for a while.”  
Everything Derek said afterwards Stiles didn’t hear. Derek would leave. He would actually leave. As much as he sometimes hated the older man, as much he liked him. Really liked him. It had hit Stiles before that there was a tension between him and Derek, but never as much as it did now.  
“Why are you leaving?” Stiles spoke his mind. Everyone turned to look at him, confused.  
“As I just said: Cora lived in an area where a couple of other packs lived, some of them with quite a long history. She thinks that they could help us figuring out what may awaits us.”  
Stiles’ mind raced. He didn’t really catch the meaning of Derek’s words.  
“And how... how long will you be gone?”  
“We don’t know yet. Hopefully not more than a month or two. We can’t leave you alone any longer. We’re like one pack now. We need each other.”  
One or two months. That’s more than Stiles could bear. But he tried his best to not let the other ones notice that because none of them knew why he was feeling this way. He himself didn’t quite knew until today.  
“And where are you going actually?” Stiles asked, swallowing.  
“We’ll be in and around Chicago, that’s were Cora lived before she returned.”  
Chicago. That was really far away. Nothing were you could get in a two hour drive.  
“Don’t you think that Deaton could help us in the same way as those packs?” Scott asked while glancing at Stiles.  
“If I did, would I be leaving?” Derek said.  
“Yeah you’re right,” Scott agreed.  
“That’s what I wanted you to know. I’m bad at goodbyes but I couldn’t leave without letting you know...”  
“... or I wouldn’t let you,” Cora said, winking at Derek.  
“Or you wouldn’t,” Derek replied, smiling at her.  
“I hope you guys can understand our reasons.”  
“Yeah, of course,” Scott instantly said. He looked around at the others, all of them nodding.  
“I hope you’ll be alright during the time we’re gone, but as soon as something happens you can’t deal with on your own, call me or Cora, okay?”  
“So when are you leaving exactly?” Stiles kept on asking before any of the others could say a thing.  
“Tomorrow morning. We can’t lose any more time,” Derek said with a stern look, grinding his jaw.  
“Oh...” was the only thing Stiles could response to that. He couldn’t believe that Derek told them this late. At a moment’s notice they would be on their own with so many things they didn’t know about.  
But he could do nothing against Derek’s decision. If Stiles knew one thing, then that Derek’s plans were always certain.  
“Okay... we’ll be going back,” Allison said, looking at Isaac.  
“Yeah, we too,” Scott said, nudging Stiles’ upper arm and standing up. It took Stiles some moments to react.  
“Yeah, bye Derek, bye Cora,” Stiles said toneless, his glance focused on something none of the others could see. As he left Derek’s apartment and got into his car, backing out of the parking lot, he felt his heart sinking terribly. He almost missed the turn to Scott’s house which made him step onto the brake heavily, causing both of them to almost hit their heads on the armature.  
“STILES!” Scott cried, looking terrified at his best friend. “What’s wrong?!”  
“Uhm... I... I just... my thoughts were drifting...”  
“Better not let them wander again or we’ll land in the ditch.”  
“Sorry dude,” Stiles apologised, turning left and driving silently until he was in front of Scott’s home.  
“Stiles, are you sure you don’t want any sleeping pills? My mom’s got some.”  
“No, thanks,” Stiles declined and took off as soon as Scott had closed the front door behind him.  
*  
He couldn’t sleep. Again. What had he expected? It had been like this for a few weeks and it wouldn’t change from one day to another.  
Stiles rolled onto his side, looking at his alarm clock. 1.32 a.m. He could have screamed. He should have accepted the sleeping pills Scott had offered him, Stiles thought. But now it was too late, because first of all he didn’t want to wake up Scott and second of all he would hopefully be asleep in about an hour.  
Stiles changed his position again. His back ached. When lying in bed that long, even the comfiest mattress becomes uncomfortable somehow.  
Suddenly he sat up straight as if lightning had struck him. He knew what he wanted, what he needed to do.  
Almost jumping out of his bed, he then put on his clothes, grabbed the keys for his Jeep and leapt down the stairs, taking two steps at a time, out of the front door and into his car. Hastily he turned the key in the lock, backed out of the driveway and headed for his destination.  
He didn’t really notice anything around him on his way to Derek’s loft, not even the three desperate calls from his dad who just heard him slamming the front door shut.  
But Stiles didn’t care. He now knew exactly what he had to do:  
He had to tell Derek a proper goodbye.  
A good ten minutes later he arrived at Derek’s place. He didn’t even care about locking his car because the irrational fear that Derek and Cora may have left early took over. He stormed up the steps into the highest level because he found that the elevator was way too slow.  
When he finally pushed open the staircases’ door, he didn’t stop, even though he could have done with a few deep breaths, and started hammering onto Derek’s door.  
“Derek! Derek, open up!” Stiles shouted desperately through the door. He again began to knock heavily onto the door when it was suddenly pushed aside and a surprised Derek came into view.  
“Stiles, what are...” but Derek couldn’t finish his sentence because Stiles had knocked the air out of the older man’s lungs as he had flung his arms around him.  
Stiles felt a burning in his stomach he had never felt before. He had finally given in. He had finally accepted what his heart had tried to tell him for months and months and months. He felt his eyes tear up, but he didn’t care. He was here, hugging Derek, and Derek made no effort to push Stiles away.  
When he broke the embrace after about a minute, Derek looked at him really confused. Stiles tried to explain why he was here, but at the moment, all he could do was stutter.  
“You wanna sit down?” Derek asked concerned. Stiles nodded and sat down onto the sofa. Derek turned to the kitchen instead and filled water into a glass, offering it to Stiles then.  
“Thanks,” Stiles said, taking a great sip. As he put down the glass, he noticed Cora coming down the spiral staircase.  
“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily, shooting glances at Derek and Stiles.  
“Get back to bed,” Derek commanded, so Cora turned and headed upstairs again. Now, he sat down next to Stiles.  
“What’s wrong, Stiles?” he asked, looking Stiles straight into the eyes with no frown on his face and no anger or annoyance in his voice.  
“I... I cannot bear you leaving, Derek,” Stiles confessed with a shaking voice.  
Silence. After some minutes, Stiles said: “Don’t you wanna reply anything? And by the way, you’re stare’s getting creepy.”  
The corners of Derek’s mouth twitched and the next moment he said: “You know, Stiles, I’ve always liked your humour.” And as the older man said those words he grabbed Stiles’ t-shirt and pulled him towards himself, placing his lips onto Stiles’. Derek closed his eyes, but Stiles’ were wide open in shock. Never, not even in his wildest dreams he would have imagined that Derek could feel the same way as him.  
When Derek pulled back, he gave Stiles an amused look.  
“What the hell was that?” Stiles asked perplex.  
“I kissed you,” Derek said seriously. And again, Stiles was lost for words.  
“So, what was it that you wanted to tell me?” Derek asked.  
“I... wanted to say goodbye.”  
“That’s all? That’s why you come here in the middle of the night and almost break down my door?” Derek could not believe that the boy never showed this affection before and furthermore that he had never sensed it before. But as Stiles looked up at him through his lashes, Derek could hear the fast heartbeat and smell the arousal the kiss set off and he realized that Stiles told the truth. Now he got curious. “Since when do you feel that way?”  
“I don’t really know. It really hit me yesterday when you told all of us that you would be leaving, but I noticed that there was something between us before. I think it started at the pool.”  
“You mean when we fought the Kanima?”  
“Yeah,” Stiles said quietly and Derek heard that the boy’s heartbeat sped up a little bit.  
“That’s a pretty long time.”  
“I know,” Stiles began and suddenly everything poured out of him. “You just were so mean all of the time and I fought back every feeling that I had towards you because I know how it feels to lose someone and not just my mother because as you might know Jennifer killed Heather and she was one of my childhood friends and then when I saw her in the morgue I just thought that if I allow those feelings and something like that would ever happen to you I could not go on and so I never let anything in but now all of that freaking stuff is over and as I lay in bed tonight and couldn’t sleep I thought that when you’d leave for Chicago in the morning and I didn’t have any chance to say goodbye to you I’d regret it.”  
“You really think I was mean?”  
“Yes?” Stiles said bewildered.  
“I tried to protect you, Stiles. That’s all I ever tried to do. So don’t ever again think that I was mean,” Derek said as he pulled Stiles close to hug him, thinking that it was about time that he confessed this to Stiles.  
*  
“Do you really have to leave?” Stiles asked with tears in his eyes.  
“Yes,” Derek said in a decisive tone. “But I’ll be back in no time.”  
“Two months are more than I can bear, Derek.”  
“You have to,” the older man said as he stepped closer. “And I know that you can do it. But I want you to go home now, Stiles. There are people out there who need you. Your dad. Scott, Allison, Isaac, Lydia. You can’t do everything dependent on me, I won’t let you do that.”  
“Okay,” Stiles agreed rather reluctantly. “But you won’t forget what I said, will you?”  
“I won’t.” Derek bridged the space left between them and kissed Stiles, his hands clutching the fabric of Stiles’ shirt. “But please go home now. I’m not good at goodbyes.”  
“I know,” said Stiles and again knocked the air out of Derek’s lungs as he hugged him tight, whispering in his ear: “I know, sourwolf.”


	2. Chapter 2

Derek sat down, looking out of the plane’s window.

“Something wrong?” Cora asked as she sat down beside him. “You haven’t said a word during the whole drive.”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing. I just don’t know what awaits us in Chicago.”

Cora shrugged her shoulders and fastened her seating belt. “I’m optimistic that Emily’s pack can help us. Their history reaches back ‘til around 1650, as you might remember.”

“Good to know,” Derek said as he pressed himself into the seat when the machine’s engines started.

“Have you been flying before?” Cora asked with a half concerned, half amused look.

“No, and I’m glad that I don’t have to do it more often.” But as soon as the plane was above the clouds, Derek relaxed visibly. One hour later, he turned towards Cora.

“So you lived with Emily’s pack up there?”

“Yes, she and the others cared for me. She’s still like a mother to me.”  
“Do you often think about Mom?” Derek asked unexpectedly.

“Every day,” she said, taking his brother’s hand, “and there isn’t one when I don’t miss her, I can hardly stand it.”

“When I think about my anchor, I also think about her. And about all of the others: Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle John and Aunt Mary and about Susan, Berry and Nikolas. I will never forget the last days we spent with them.” He was silent for a few minutes. “I can’t believe I never realized that Kate only used me!” Derek said angrily.

“You need to stop blaming yourself. I know that you know that it wasn’t your fault that Kate set our house on fire; you need to stop that!” Cora said in a serious tone.

“I can’t,” Derek simply said, turning his glance back to the window.

*

As the plane began to get down, Derek clutched the armrest with his claws.

“Relax, Derek,” Cora told him. “Nothing’s gonna happen.”

And she was right. The landed without any complications, they got through the security check without any complications and before he knew it, he and his sister stood in the hotel room they rented. As Cora put their clothes into a chest of drawers, Derek sat down onto his bed and said: “What are we going to do now? Do you have a plan how we’re going to get into contact with Emily’s pack?”

Cora turned to Derek, smiling. “I know where Emily lives. That’s were our pack meetings always took place. We can go there later on, I just hope Emily’s at home.”  
“Why that?”

“You know, she works as a lawyer and she’s pretty successful.”  
“She works as a lawyer?” Derek said amazed. “Why haven’t you told me earlier?”

“Uhm... is it bad I didn’t?” Cora gave his brother a bewildered look.

“No... it’s okay. It just would have been an interesting fact to know beforehand.”

“Stop worrying, Derek. She’s _nice_. We wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t, though,” Cora said.

“So where does she live exactly?”

“Near West Side... that’s not far from here,” she added as her brother gave her a puzzled look. “I think it would be best if we go there around 6 p.m. So there’re some hours left. Want to explore the city? I could show you some very cool spots.”

“Sure, why not,” Derek agreed, having no idea what they would have done otherwise.

*

As the clock reached a quarter to six, the siblings were in the back of a taxi cab that took them to Emily’s house. They had had a lot of fun in town as it was the first day since a long time that they had so little worries. But as the cab came to a halt in front of the house it hit Derek again why they were here in Chicago.

They climbed the front door’s steps and Cora pushed the bell button. After a few moments, a figure could be seen through the riffled glass and the door was pulled open.

The woman in front of them was about 40 years old with curly black hair, hazel eyes and very prominent cheek bones. Her mouth was open in surprise as she cried “Cora!”, pulled the girl towards her and embraced her in a tight hug.

“Thank god you’re alright,” she said as they broke apart. “And you must be Derek,” she said turning towards him and stretching out her hand. “I’m Emily, nice to meet you!”

Derek shook her hand as she gave him a bright smile.

“Come in!”

Emily’s house was furnished in a very luxurious way but not too exaggerated. They sat down in the living room, Emily offering them water and some sweets before she sat down herself on an armchair before them.

“What brings you here?” she asked Cora.

“It’s about Beacon Hills. There was an Alpha Pack we needed to fight and there was also a Darach who kept murdering people. That Darach happened to be the emissary of one of the members of the Alpha pack before she joined it and in the end the Darach captured the parents of three kids: Scott, Stiles and Allison. Scott is also a werewolf; he was turned by our uncle while he was still the Alpha. Allison comes from a family of hunters but she’s alright and Stiles’s the best friend of Scott. So they sacrificed themselves for their parents and Deaton said that these sacrifices, this ceremony could lure all kinds of supernatural creatures to Beacon Hills and we need to know what awaits us.”

Emily listened to Cora’s explanation with gasps and headshaking. Eventually, she said: “There’s a lot that could come to Beacon Hills. In our history only two of those ceremonies took place, but what happened afterwards was frightening enough. You’ll need help, believe me.”

“Can you tell us what happened after your ceremonies?” Derek asked.

“Not everything’s documented because the times after those ceremonies were very rough, but it’s enough. Let me just get the books.”

Emily stood up and strode to a large bookshelf that took up the whole wall. She didn’t had to search long before she found what she was looking for and came back to her armchair, laying the books on the side table before her.

“Those two books hold everything that was documented and everything I could tell you. But before you read them, let me inform the others you’re here.” Emily took her mobile out of her bag and wrote a message which she sent to the other pack members.

“They’ll be here in about an hour, I would say. And Cora, have I told you we’ve got a new pack member?”

“Oh, no. Who is it?”

“Her name’s Maggy. She’s from an all werewolf family like you, but her parents died in a terrible car crash last year. I knew her mother so it was natural I took her into my pack.”

“Can we please get back to the topic?” Derek demanded as he took one of the books off the table.

“Of course,” Emily said, and Cora took the other book. “So, what I can tell you in general is that there are three types of creatures that appeared after both ceremonies: hellhounds, berserker and sirens. After the first one, there were also a harpy, a gorgon, a manticore, a basilisk and a hydra. After the second one, there were a devil bird, a kishi, a witch, a poltergeist and an amazon.”

“A basilisk? Like the one in Harry Potter?” Cora asked.

“Yes, like the one in Harry Potter. Just that it’s not crouching through pipes.”

“And will those books tell us how to defeat those creatures?” Derek asked as he leafed through the book.

“Yes, providing that only those creatures will turn up. If there will be others, I am not sure either I or the books can help you, but me and my pack will do our best.”

Emily explained to them what all of the creatures were and everything she remembered from the times after the ceremonies but when she wanted to tell especially Derek a bit more about her pack’s history, there was someone on the door. Emily stood up and headed for the door and when she came back she was accompanied by a man around Derek’s age with light blonde hair and crystal blue eyes.

“Derek, this is Jeremy. Jeremy, that’s Derek Hale, Cora’s older brother with whom she lived after she heard about the Alpha from the Hale family and left last year.”

Derek and Jeremy eyed each other sceptical and shook hands. Jeremy then turned to Cora and gave her a long hug, sitting down opposite her afterwards.

“You haven’t changed at all,” Jeremy said smiling to Cora, which caused her to blush and Derek to give him a disapproving look.

Some minutes later, there was another ringing and Emily stood up again. She came back with another man, a bit younger than Derek, with wild dark hair, brown eyes and some stubble of beard. Cora leapt off the sofa as she caught sight of him and gave him a really tight hug, burying her face in the curve of his neckline. When she let him go, he said “I missed you too,” really quietly, but as all of them were werewolves, they could hear it loud and clear.

Before they could sit down, the door, which separated the living room from the dining room, opened and a woman, a bit younger than Emily, entered the room. She looked surprised, first looking at Cora and then turning her glance towards Derek.

“Cora,” she said, turning towards her again. “You haven’t told me you’ve got such a handsome brother.” She took some steps towards Derek, leaned forwards so that their faces were on one level and laid her hand onto his thigh, which made Derek give her a cold expression, shifting his leg out of her touch. She just laughed and said: „You’re hard to catch, aren’t you?”

“For one, yes, I am. And for a second, it would be nice if I knew your name before you’d start touching me.”

The woman didn’t even stop smiling and said: “I’m Susanna. And your name is?”

“Derek,” he grunted, glancing at his little sister which gave him an apologizing look.

“Susy,” Emily said in a disapproving voice, jerking her head at a chair onto which Susanna then sat down, still glancing and smiling at Derek. “Only one to come.”

They didn’t need to wait long until the last, and newest, pack member arrived. When Emily escorted her into the living room, Derek thought of Lydia at the first moment.

“Cora, Derek; this is Maggy. Maggy, this are Derek and Cora. Cora lived with our pack before you joined it.”

In the next moment, Derek did not know why she had reminded him of Lydia. She approached them both very shyly, fixing her eyes to the ground and whispered only. As all of them finally sat down, Emily said: “I wanted you to come here because Cora and Derek will need our help. Three friends of them have gone through the sacrifice ceremony and we all know what that means. Before Cora left I promised her that whenever there’d be something she can’t deal with on her own, she can ask us for help. Now it’s time we keep this promise.”

-

The first month after their arrival was very interesting but also very frightening. Emily’s pack helped them to go through the books and learn everything they would need to know when they would be confronted with those creatures. Derek knew what the Kanima was like and he was frightened by that, but as he read about the other creatures that could await them, he was scared to death – but of course he didn’t admit it.

Cora had told his brother that when she lived with the pack, both Eric and Jeremy had a thing for her but she only returned this affection towards Eric, which explained the tension whenever those three were together in one room. This tension intensified as soon as Cora started to meet with Eric again, but Derek was too happy to see his little sister this felicitous to say a thing about it.

And now that Cora was out with Eric almost every night, Derek had a lot of time to think. Mostly about Stiles and how he felt about him. It had been tough for him to admit it to Stiles, but now he had done it, he was glad he did. Only the timing was really bad. Often, Derek pulled out his mobile when he lay in bed at night and stared at the display, not knowing if she should call Stiles or not, but put it away every time. He told himself ‘Just one month, then I’ll be back’ and this thought convinced himself until the next evening, but not longer.

-

Knock, knock, knock.

“That must be Eric!” Cora said excited, stormed towards the door and pulled it open. Eric took a step inside and said “Hi” to Derek, giving him a little wave with his hand. Then, Cora took hold of the boy’s arm and started to drag him out, when suddenly Derek said: “Where exactly are you lot going?” Cora got back into the room and said happily: “Just the cinema. I’ll be back in about three hours. Bye!” She kissed his brother onto his forehead and was gone the next second. Derek sighed.

“Being seventeen...” he said absent minded, still glancing at the closed door through which his sister had vanished. He then turned back to his computer on which he looked up legendary creatures on Wikipedia, but which wasn’t a real help because most of the entries were complete rubbish. But he had nothing else to do so he kept going.

He had read about twenty articles when suddenly there were knocks on the door again. As Derek wondered why Cora had come back again, he pulled open the door and asked “Why are you back?” before he realised that it wasn’t his sister who stood in front of the door, but Susanna.

“Back?” Susanna said with a dirty smile on her lips. “But Derek, I’ve never been here before.” Then she sneaked herself into the hotel room by diving through under Derek’s arm, seating herself onto his bed. “Nice hotel.”

“Thanks,” Derek grunted as he closed the door and positioned himself in front of Susanna. “Why are you here? Did Emily send you?”

“No,” she said, again with that smile on her lips, standing up. “I’m here because I wanted to see you, Derek.” She stroked his upper arm. Just then, Derek noticed that she wore a really short, tight black dress which didn’t leave any space for imaginations. He heard the blood rush in his ears as he remembered the last time he had sex. It was with Jennifer. He also realized how long it had been since then. Too long.

“I wondered,” Susanna’s words cut into his thoughts, “if you liked me.” She took a step closer and let her hands wander over Derek’s front, tracing the lines of his muscles which showed through his shirt, looking up at him though her lashes. She reached over to the back of her dress, opened the zipper and the dress fell to the floor.

‘This is wrong,’ Derek thought. ‘It’s Stiles I like.’ But his thoughts were wiped from his brain as Susanna suddenly slipped a hand into his jeans. He inhaled sharp, eyes widened.

“Someone’s horny,” Susanna whispered but Derek clasped her wrist and yanks her hair from his jeans, glaring at her.

“Never. Do this. Again,” he growled angrily and pushed her back. She gave him an affronted look but didn’t show any sign that she intended to pick up her dress and leave. Instead, she walked towards him again until she stood so close that she could have kissed him.

“Oh, Derek,” she purred. “I know you want this too.” She leans in, apparently to kiss him, but before their lips meet, Derek grabbed her throat and held her at distance.

“You know _nothing_ about me,” he said in a threatening voice and contracted his fingers a bit so she hand so fight for air for a second before he released her and jostled her away. He picked up her dress and threw it at her. “Get lost. _Now!_ ”

Susanna didn’t dare to stay a second longer, just hastily pulled over her dress and stormed out of the door.

“Fuck you very much, Derek!” she shouted through the closed door before the only thing that could be heard were the clacking of her heel in the hallway.

“Fuck!” Derek damned, sitting down on his bed weakly. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”


	3. Chapter 3

STILES’ POV

Stiles sat down on one of the chairs next to the door, leaving one seat between him and a girl who apparently waited for an appointment too, but whom he had never seen in school before.

“So what’s your problem?” she asked unexpectedly. Stiles looked around at her, opened and closed his mouth in surprise as she smiled at him and put a strand of her blonde hair back behind her ear.

“Oh, it’s okay if you don’t wanna tell,” she said with an understanding headshake, leaning forwards with her hands on her knees. “By the way, I’m Calista.”

“I’m Stiles,” he said, somehow unable to take his gaze off the girl’s crystal blue eyes. “I... I’ve never seen you around here.”

“Oh, yeah,” Calista said, still smiling. “I’ve just moved here this term. And you... you lived here all your life?”

“Uhm, yes,” Stiles said, thinking about how she seemed really interested in the things he said. “All my life in boring Beacon Hills.”  
“You find Beacon Hills boring?” she asked in an unbelieving voice and raised her eyebrows.

“Uhm... most of the time, yeah,” he lied, again glancing at the girl’s eyes. He frantically searched for something he could ask her but at that moment the door of the guidance counselor office opened and Ms. Morell stepped out into the hall.

“Come in, Stiles.” And turning her glance at Calista, she said: “We’ll need about half an hour. Make yourself at home.”

Stiles walked into the office and sat down onto the chair in front of the desk. Then Ms. Morell closed the door behind her and sat down opposite him.

“It _is_ hell,” Stiles spluttered before Ms. Morell could say a word.   
“But I see you keep going.”

“Not for me. I do it for my dad.”

“Why not for Scott?”

At these words, Stiles looked up from his torn up cuticle, gaping at the guidance counselor.

“I… he has been the shittiest friend ever. Whenever I’m calling him, he’s with Allison and either tells me he hasn’t got time or he doesn’t even answer his phone. Sure he’s happy that things are going so well with Allison but it’s not as if _I_ don’t need any attention. How is our friendship supposed to remain when I am the only one putting effort into it?”

“Have you tried spending time with your other friends, to distract yourself, to not lose connection?”

First, Stiles wanted to say ‘What other friends?’ but he thought better of it. “Not much. Isaac constantly broods about how he can get Allison to like him instead of Scott, so he’s not the most fun person to be around. Lydia is snogging Aidan all the time and I’m not keen to be the third wheel, which, looking back, I’d been most of the time so I shouldn’t be complaining but I don’t want to be nobody anymore!” he almost screamed. But Ms. Morell remained calm, as she always did.

“I see your point. I advise you to confront Scott. He, as your best friend, should understand your worries best. If he doesn’t, talk to his mother. She of all people has the most authority over him. And I also advise you to meet new people. The times were rough and you need to relax and get your mind off those things. You’re not nobody, Stiles, always keep that in mind.”

Stiles stared off into nowhere, his eyes fixed onto something Ms. Morell couldn’t see, tearing off his cuticle.

“I saw that you talked to Calista outside my office. Maybe you should get to know her better, I have the feeling that she could do with somebody, and so do you.” And with a smile, she looked at Stiles, who had risen his gaze at those words.

“Yeah… I think I could.”

“You can go now,” Ms. Morrell said and so he did. As he stepped out into the hallway, Calista looked at him, again wearing that bright smile. She seemed to know that Ms. Morrell would call her in in some minutes because she always took her notes after a session, because she kept her seat. Stiles thought ‘Now rather than later’, so he said “Would you mind hanging out some time?” Calista’s eyes lit up, and she nodded.

“Alright, see you.” So he set off to his next class.

*

The next day at lunch, Stiles intended to sit down with Scott and the others to eat, but he caught the sight of Calista’s blonde hair across the room and made his way towards her. As he was only some steps away, she noticed him and immediately her face split into a bright smile.

“Stiles!” she cried out, which earned her some strange looks from the people sitting at the tables next to her, but she didn’t seem to notice. She just put down her bag so that Stiles could sit down next to her, which he did.

“I didn’t expect that we would see each other again so soon,” she said before she ate a forkful of noodles.

“Well, here I am,” Stiles said, blushing slightly. He never received that much attention from a girl, except maybe Heather and his mom, but they did not count.

“So, do you have anything planned for the weekend?” Calista asked, shoveling another forkful of noodles into her mouth.

Stiles almost choked on his drink. Did she just ask him out on a date?

“Did you…”  
“What?” she asked amused, eyes shining.

“… ask me out on a date?”

“Well, would you like to go on a date with me?”

“Uhm…” Stiles had no response to that. He definitely liked Calista but he just knew her since yesterday and since he was with Derek, somehow, he thought it would be bad to go on a date with a girl he just met. But on the other hand he really needed to find a new friend and Calista seemed really nice. “Well, I’m kinda in a relationship but I’d totally would like to get to know you, so I think a “date” could be okay.”

“Great!” she smiled. It seemed, Stiles thought, that this smiled never appeared to leave her face. But the he felt his stomach growling slightly and his thoughts were drawn to his lunch.

“Enjoy your meal!” Calista said and continued to eat her lunch.

When she wasn’t looking, a small smile crept on his lips. He finally managed to make new friends, even if it was just one person.

*

The week passed with Stiles meeting Calista at lunch and him being steadily more cheerful. But one thought always struck him when he lay in bed at night: What did Derek do? Was he safe? Or in danger? Did he find out what he hoped to find out? Would he come back soon? Or would he stay even longer than he said he would? Slightly more than a month had passed already and Derek said that he wouldn’t stay more than two months in Chicago…

As Stiles woke up on Saturday morning, his stomach felt rather sick. He got up and took a shower and choked down some toast for breakfast. Calista and he wanted to see ‘Gravity’ at the cinema this evening. Stiles wasn’t that much of a Science fiction fan, but the movie sounded quite interesting so he had agreed.

During the afternoon he tried to call Scott several times, but he answered none of them. After the seventh unanswered call he cursed his best friend for the umpteenth time this week and sat down at his laptop and tried to lift his mood by watching ‘Fail’ videos on youtube.

When the clock reached a quarter to eight, he shut down his laptop, grabbed the keys to his car, told his dad where he was going and got off.

 

 

DEREK’S POV

Derek stepped down the front doors’ steps onto the side walk, pulling out his mobile out if his pocket to check if someone tried to contact him and for the first time in one and a half months, he sees that he missed three calls. All from Scott. Immediately, he called him back.

“Why didn’t you pick up?” was the first thing Scott said in an annoyed, yet anxious voice.

“We had a meeting with the pack. What’s wrong?”

“Stiles’s gone.”

Derek’s eyes unfocused. His mind raced and was empty at the same time.

“What does that mean, he’s ‘gone’?” he asked concerned.

“It means none of us knows where he is. I last saw him Friday at school. He wasn’t in classes today and he does not answer his phone.”

“Have you tried searching for him by his scent?”

“Not yet but it’s the next thing Isaac and I want to do, but first I wanted to fill you in because... well... it’s very unlike him to just vanish like this. I’m worried sick and if we can’t find him, will you come back to Beacon Hills and help us?”

“Yes, but now get Isaac and search for Stiles. If you can’t find him, call me again and I’ll be back.”

Derek pocketed his phone and turned to Cora who had eyed him with a worried expression throughout the conversation.

“Do you think it already started?”

“I hope not, but I do think it has.”

As the siblings got back into their hotel room, Derek shot fearful looks at his mobile, but not until an hour later it ringed.

“Have you found him?” Derek asked breathlessly.

“No.” Scott’s voice was full of worry. “It’s like his scent is nowhere. Please come back and help us because I really don’t know what’s going on.” Scott sounded legitimately anxious.

“I’ll take the next plane,” Derek said seriously. “Keep on searching, will you?”

“Of course.” Then, Derek hung up, catching the still concerned look of his sister.

“So... that’s it.” It was no question but a statement. “Get a shower, I’ll pack your bag,” she added as Derek made an attempt to approach the dresser.

*

Two hours later Derek said good bye to Cora at the entrance of the airport, reassuring that she and Emily’s pack would follow him as fast as possible.

“Try your best. If it _really_ started already and Stiles is involved in it somehow, you need to make sure you get him out of there. We can’t lose him.” Cora stroked her brother’s arm with an understanding look. Derek narrowed his eyes.

“How do you know?”

“I’m a werewolf too, Derek, maybe you forgot. We can talk about it later, if you want to. Have a nice flight!” She turned on her heels to get back to the taxi cap, waving at him one last time before she got in and the car drove off.

Derek picked up his bag and entered the actual airport building. As he finally sat down on the plane, his thoughts were nowhere but with Stiles. He couldn’t tell which of the creatures could have caused Stiles to disappear. Maybe a Hellhound dragged him off… images of the mangled and blood-covered body of Stiles came into his mind and Derek’s eyes widened in shock. In his mind he begged the pilots to start the engines already so he could be back faster.

 

But it was no help. Trapped inside the metal shell of the plane, he couldn’t do anything other than wait until the plane got down in Chicago.

The hours seemed to stretch into days but finally, they landed. Derek tried to get off and out of the airport as fast as possible and when he finally sat in a taxi cab that brought him to Beacon Hills, he called Scott again.

“Anything new?” he asked anxiously.

“Unfortunately not. Isaac and I tried to search for Stiles scent again, but nothing, and even Ethan and Aiden who we asked for help about an hour and a half ago couldn’t sense him. Please, Derek, tell me what the fuck is wrong!” There was a trace of stifled breath and Derek could tell that Scott had cried.

“I believe that it started, that supernatural creatures are now in Beacon Hills. I don’t know which, but I hope that it’s one of those Emily’s pack dealt with. I’ll be in Beacon Hills in about three-quarters of an hour, we’ll meet at the school.”

“Alright,” Scott said with a choked voice and hung up.

And again, Derek hoped that the taxi driver would speed up, and again it was no use.

 

As he paid the driver and got off the car, he saw that Scott and Isaac already awaited him in front of the school.

“Still nothing new?” Derek asked concerned.

“Nothing. I don’t even know where we could be looking anymore.”

“Alright, alright. So… was there anything exceptional that involved Stiles the last days?”

“Well, he met that girl who’s new at our school… I don’t know her name. I just know she had this blonde hair and those ‘crystal blue eyes’, Stiles one time said.”

“Why the hell didn’t you told me that he met her?” Derek growled angrily.

“Why? Is it important?”

“Yeah because she could be a fucking Siren!”

“Why would I assume that she’s a Siren?” Scott said defensively.

“I know you couldn’t know she could be, but Sirens were one of the creatures that appeared after both sacrifice ceremonies in the history of Emily’s pack.”

“So you think…?”

“It seems most likely, yes.” After a short pause, Derek said: “I want you two to get Ethan and Aiden and come to my loft. I’ll make up a plan where to look for Stiles according to the information I’ve got about Sirens.”

Without another word, the three men departed and Derek set off to his loft.

As he unlocked the door to the loft, his phone ringed; it was his sister.

“Have you found Stiles yet?”

“No, but Scott, Isaac, Aiden, Ethan and I will go on searching after I made up a plan considering what I know about Sirens. When will you be here?”

“In about five hours. Emily and the others are in the know. They will help finding Stiles, too.”

“I hoped so. The more, the better,” Derek said relieved. “Okay, see you then.”

*

“Where are you, Derek?” Cora called out loudly.

“Over here,” he called back and Cora and Eric came running towards him. “Can you smell that?”

“Is that… keratin?” Eric asked, sniffing.

“Yes. Feathers and horn. That’s the Siren.”

“She did a good job at hiding the scents,” Emily said as she turned up beside them.

“How are we going to get down there? Climbing?” Cora asked as Scott and the other werewolves approached the spot where they stood.

“I can’t see another way. _We_ can’t fly.”

“Alright,” Emily said. “One after another. Susy, Jeremy, Derek and I will go first, we’re the oldest. You others are following.”

One after another they climbed down the plateau overlooking Beacon Hills. As Derek reached the jut he was confronted with a horrible scene: Stiles laid in one corner of the cave, looking up absent-mindedly at the Siren, his clothes torn, evidently by her talons when she had brought him here. She spoke to him and Derek knew at once why Stiles couldn’t resist her. Her voice was magnificent. But in the next second he pulled himself together and looked around and saw that everyone now stood on the jut.

“On three,” Emily said determined.

“One.” Derek pulled out his claws.

“Two.” He growled low-pitched.

“Three.” And he leapt forward at the creature that tried to kill the person he had opened up his heart to.

*

“She was a fucking Veela!” Stiles cried, a wild look in his eyes.

“A what?” Scott asked.

“No Stiles, she was a Siren,” Derek interjected.

“A what?” Stiles asked.

“A Siren. A creature, half woman, half bird who, in Greek mythology, lured sailors into the reef before their islands with their bewitching songs.”

“Half bird?” Stiles asked in unbelief. “I can’t remember that she had a beak.”

“She didn’t. You just didn’t notice her talons because you weren’t able to take your look off her face.”  
“It’s not my fault that she was incredibly beautiful and lulled me in with her unbelievable lovely voice!” Stiles almost shouted, gesturing wildly with his hands.

“Nobody said that it was your fault,” Derek said calmly, looking up at Stiles who now started pacing around the room. “You sure you don’t wanna put on proper clothes?”  
“She ripped my fucking hoodie!” Stiles whined as he looked at the torn fabric of his red hoodie. “Good thing you killed her or I would have! I’m never going to trust Ms. Morrell advices again and try to befriend people she suggests. Never!”

“I’m just relieved you’re okay, Stiles,” Derek said and he looked at Scott, who shot his best friend worried looks. “I think you have something to say, Scott.”

“I really am sorry I ignored you like this, Stiles,” Scott said and it was perfectly clear he meant it. “That will never happen again. I just thought we were save, you see?”

“Yeah, I see,” Stiles answered.

“So, you think you’re really okay?” Scott asked.

“Yes, I think so. Why?”

“Because I need to tell Allison what happened and that’s too… “

“Alright just go!” Stiles said rather angrily and Derek sensed the disappointment flooding from the boy, but Scott did not seem to notice it.

“Thanks buddy, I’ll see you later.” And he was off.

And so it was just Stiles and Derek left.

And silence.

And staring.

“You’re back,” Stiles sighed after what seemed like an hour. And he leapt himself forward at the older men, locked him in his arms and pressed him down onto the softness of the mattress. “You’re finally back.”

“And you’re alive,” Derek whispered as he brushed trough Stiles’ hair and kissed the boy as if it was the last time he could kiss him.


	4. Chapter 4

As Stiles woke up the next morning he felt the heat of Derek’s skin brushing against his own under the covers of the bed and heard his slow and steady breathing. He turned his head to look at him and was overwhelmed by the peaceful look on the older man’s face.

Stiles pulled his hand out from under the blanket and reached over to touch Derek’s stubble-covered cheek but let his fingers hover inches over his skin, unsure whether he could risk it to wake Derek up by that or not.

But at last his urge to touch Derek took over and he placed his palm on the other man’s cheek. Stiles held his breath as he played through the scenario in his head that Derek would rip out his throat, with which he had threatened him so often, but nothing happened. On the contrary Derek seemed to press his head into Stiles’ hand.

‘Is he awake?’ Stiles asked himself but Derek’s eyes remained shut and his breathing calm. He breathed out relieved and took a closer look at Derek.

They have had a long talk yesterday evening about what Derek had found out in Chicago and how they had arrived just in time to save him from the Siren… Calista. Thinking about it now, Stiles realized why she had such a power over him: he had been alone. He had been near his breaking point and she had sensed it. He was the weakest of them all and that’s why she had chosen him as her victim. She must have known how he had lost contact with Scott and how he had no one else that he was this close to. As Derek was gone, he felt utterly unprotected and his thoughts became more and more terrible. He had blamed himself for the things that had happened, that Boyd and Erica died, that Jennifer had taken his dad, Scott’s mom and Allison’s dad and how Derek had to leave with Cora.

“What are you brooding about?”

The sleepy voice of Derek trailed over to Stiles, cut through his thoughts and made him focus on the older man again, lying next to him, bare-chested and tousled-haired.

“I started to get bad,” Stiles confessed, taking his hand off of Derek’s cheek. “Before you came back,” he added, alarmed by the worried look in Derek’s eyes.

“Why that?” Derek asked concerned, studying the features of the boy’s face.

“You were gone and I felt like I had no protection left because Scott and Isaac had to do with Allison, and I still don’t trust Ethan and Aiden. So it was just me and my dad left. But I couldn’t confide in him, I didn’t want him to worry about me more than he already did.”  
“You could have called,” Derek said after a short pause.

“ _You_ could have called,” Stiles said louder than necessary with a trace of anger in his voice and tears in his eyes. “I thought you would call but nothing ever happened. Surely you were too busy with Emily and the others.” As he spoke the last word, Stiles instantly regretted that he did so. He could see the pain in Derek’s eyes, the pain that _he_ had caused.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Stiles said rapidly as he covered his face under the blanket and turned away from Derek.

He tried to fight Derek’s arms away as they gripped him firmly around the chest, pulling them closer together, but Derek was too strong and the sobs Stiles tried to suppress were no help either.

“I should have called,” Derek whispered softly as soon as he noticed that the boy’s heartbeat slowed down, and loosened the embrace. He felt Stiles’ chest rising and sinking as he tried to breathe calmly and sensed the relief pouring from the teen.

“Better?” Derek asked, not taking his arms off from around Stiles.

“Yes… thanks.”

*

Later that day, Derek called Scott and Isaac to meet him at the loft. As the two friends arrived, Stiles made no effort to leave the bed, only sat down upon the covers instead of lying underneath them, because he thought that as soon as Scott would see him, he would know what was going on and would tell Isaac in an instant, in case he did not notice what was going on between Derek and him.

“Sit down,” Derek said in his usual commanding voice when they arrive before either of them could say a word, and so the boys did. “Yesterday we fought a Siren. She was the first supernatural creature that was lured to Beacon Hills because of your Sacrifice Ceremony. If we can trust the experiences of Emily’s pack – and I think we can – there are two more creatures that will most likely be turning up: Berserkers and Hellhounds.”

Scott and Isaac eyed Derek with a puzzled look; obviously they never heard of either. But Stiles had: Derek had told him yesterday, explaining how they could recognize each of them. But Stiles did not speak up.

“Berserkers are male and seem to be fighting in a fury. They don’t notice when they are hurt and don’t care. They have superhuman strengths and often travel in packs of two or three, even though they are very selfish and don’t turn to help their fellows if they’re injured. The most vicious thing is that they do not care about who they kill.

Hellhounds, on the other hand, come on their own, even fight if they meet another hellhound. They appear in the form of a dog, their eyes glow red in the moonlight, their teeth are sharp as razors and they are super-fast.”

Scott and Isaac still looked puzzled.

“So, how are we going to fight them?” Scott asked.

“Together,” Derek simply said. He looked at Stiles as he continued: “We need to work together before something terrible happens since Cora and I just came back in time before one of us died.” At those words Isaac and Scott turned to Stiles who felt rather uncomfortable with all of their eyes focused on him. He shifted uneasily on the blankets and tried to avoid the gazes of the others by looking at his still torn up cuticle. There was silence and Stiles could almost sense how Derek, Scott and Isaac exchanged glances and searched for something to say.

“So… where’s Cora?” Scott finally said, breaking the silence.

“She’s out with Eric again.”

“Aren’t you worried that something’ll happen to her?”

“I am,” Derek said tonelessly and Stiles looked up at him and saw pain in his eyes; obviously he thought of the time when Cora almost died.

“I’ve got a good feeling about Eric,” Isaac interjected, but hastily added “and… all of those others” as Derek shot him an angry look.

“Still such a Sourwolf,” Stiles whispered to himself, grinning slightly, but he had forgotten that they could hear him loud and clearly since they were werewolves. They turned towards him, Scott with a grin, Isaac with a questioning look and Derek raising his eyebrows. As Stiles met Derek’s eyes, his expression softened and the boy could have sworn that his eyes lit up.

Derek and him clearly looked at each other a second too long because out of the corner of his eye Stiles could see his best friend looking from him to Derek and back, eyes narrowed and mouth slightly open. Stiles broke away from Derek’s gaze and turned to Scott with an uneasy expression. But instead of shouting, Scott laughed out loud.

“You finally figured it out,” he managed to say between his laughs, holding his sides. Now it was Stiles turn to look puzzled as Isaac pulled out 20 bucks out of his pocket and handed them over to Scott.

“You bet on us?” Stiles said unbelieving and looked back at Derek after Scott nodded and bit down further laughs, but Derek simply shrugged his shoulders which relaxed Stiles. “For your information, we already figured it out more than a month ago.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Scott said, grinning. “I won. Isaac said you wouldn’t get together until our graduation and I bet against it. Thanks for the money, mate,” he said as he turned to Isaac, who didn’t say anything, just looked apologizing at Stiles.

“At least you spared me the inconvenience to tell you about us,” Stiles said and he felt the happiness which he had lacked for such a long time coming back, rising up in his stomach and tickling in his throat. And then he laughed. He held his stomach and let himself fall back onto the bed. Scott and Isaac eyed their friend amused, and even Derek had to smile even though he tried to hide it, but the happiness on Stiles face made him feel light and relieved that his encounter with the Siren seemed to have left no serious damage.

At last the laughs of the boy faded away and he sat up again. Soon, Derek spoke up.

“Alright,” he said to Isaac and Scott. “Please tell Allison, Lydia, Ethan and Aidan what I told you. Emily surely informed her pack and Cora already what will happen soon, but I’ll check that. Stay safe, keep out an eye for anything unusual and tell me instantly if something happens. You understand me?” he asked as he looked sternly at Isaac and Scott, and both of them nodded. “Good.”

Scott let air out through his lips and turned to first look at Isaac, then back at Derek and at last as Stiles, who didn’t look at him but at Derek. Then, Scott turned his eyes back at Isaac.

“Dude... I think we’re no longer needed,” he said with a jerk of his head at Stiles and Isaac understood. “See you later,” Scott said and winked at his best friend as he held the door open for Isaac and then closed it shut with a soft thud.

*

“I… I’ve never done this before.”

Derek’s eyes widened but he didn’t lower his hand that he had stretched out, waiting for his fingers to entwine with Stiles’.

“It’s okay,” he said in a softer voice than Stiles had ever heard. “Come here.”

The boy swallowed, for the first time afraid of what would await him if he stepped forward and laid his hand into Derek’s. But the look in Derek’s eyes convinced him that he did not need to worry.

So he stretched out his arm and placed his hand into the palm of Derek who closed his hand immediately around his. Then, Derek pulled him close and placed his lips onto Stiles’.

If Stiles wasn’t sure he really wanted this before, he certainly was now. The pressure of Derek’s lips upon his own and the taste of them made him forget every worry in the world. There was nothing else but them. Every time Derek’s fingertips brushed his skin, a shiver ran down his spine and he wanted to get closer to him, explore more of his skin, tangle his fingers in his dark wiry hair and smell his scent.

They slowly glided towards the bed, fingertips discovering each other’s skin through the fabric of their shirts, but soon Stiles couldn’t resist it to pull up Dereks’ shirt. The older man didn’t hesitate and took it off himself. Instantly, Stiles felt like that girl from “Crazy, Stupid, Love”, because, let’s be honest, Derek _looked_ like he was photo shopped. But Stiles couldn’t help but realize that he couldn’t keep up with those looks. He suddenly was ashamed that he had almost no muscles, even was ashamed of his moles.

“What is it?” Derek asked between their kisses, placing his hands onto the small of Stiles’ back.

Stiles pondered. He wanted to tell it in a way that did not hurt Derek.

“I can’t… how can you… I can’t believe that you’re interested in someone like me.”

Derek increased his grip on the teen’s lower back.

“Would you be here with me if it was otherwise?” Derek asked. “Please just shut up,” he said as he did it himself and shut Stiles up with another kiss.

*

Derek and Stiles now laid on the bed that stood in the middle of Derek’s loft, kissing more passionate than even before. As Stiles reached down for Derek’s jeans, the older men stopped in his motion, stopped kissing Stiles.

“What are you doing?”

“Wha…?” Stiles asked, leaning back but not taking his hand from where it was.

“You’re going down my pants.” Derek gripped Stiles wrist, pulling the boy’s hand from the waistband of his jeans.

“What the…?” Stiles cried out with an irritated expression.

“You’re only 17 yet. We’re not going to…” But Derek couldn’t finish.

“For real? You tell me that now that we’re finally alone together for the first time in months, we’ll be doing nothing more than kissing? Come on!” the teen said angrily, pulling his arm out of the grip of Derek. The older men eyed him appraisingly.

“You thought we would have sex tonight?” Derek asked bluntly, making Stiles gasping for air.

“Well… maybe… but it was just a general thought… don’t you think I planned to fuck you tonight!” Stiles said defending, but the look Derek gave him now made him stop in his ways. He couldn’t tell what it said. Was he surprised? Doubting? Angry? …smiling?

The corners of Derek’s mouth definitely had twitched. It reminded him of the time when he had stormed to Derek’s loft before he had left, the moment before Derek had kissed him.

“You planned to fuck me?” Derek asked amused, causing Stiles to stutter an answer where you couldn’t understand more than “What”, “No”, “I didn’t” and something like “Can we please drop the subject”.

“Can’t you see why I _really_ don’t want to go this far?” Derek then quietly said, looking at Stiles with a serious expression.

And then Stiles knew. Jennifer. Kate. He had sex with them and they turned their backs on him afterwards and now he was too afraid that it would happen again. Stiles was tempted to say ‘You can’t really think that I am like them’, but he thought better of it.

“I won’t turn my back on you,” Stiles confessed.

“That’s what they said, too. How can I be sure you mean it?”

“You can’t,” the teen said as he cupped Derek’s face with his hands. “You have to trust me,” he whispered softly before he kissed him.

Shortly before they fell asleep, Derek turned around and put his arm around Stiles.

“I can’t believe that I finally found a way to shut you up,” Derek said and smiled – the first real smile Stiles had seen on him. Even though it was in the dead of the night and just the moon shone through the window, Stiles could see it clearly.

“You need to smile more often. It looks really good on you. I like that.” So he kissed Derek, still feeling him smile on his lips. “Good night, Sourwolf,” he said quietly and turned over, now smiling himself.

*

The next day, they started with burned toast and too strong coffee, but it was all good. The sun shined and Stiles did not need to worry about school, at least not today because his dad had excused him until today. He had said that he should take some days to come to terms with the happenings.

So they spent the day in Derek’s loft. There was no TV, only Derek’s – or better to say Peter’s – laptop, so they decided to watch one movie after another, ordered two pizza’s for lunch and virtually did nothing the whole day.

When it started to dawn, Stiles got up, explaining that he needed to go home.

“School’s tomorrow, and there’s something I still need to do today.”

“Alright. Call me when you get home, okay?”

“Sure,” Stiles said and hastily kissed Derek before he slipped through the door and drove home, leaving Derek with that small smile on his face that so often showed up these days.

*

There was a crack somewhere behind Stiles. He hastily turned around and peered through the darkness.

“Hello?” No answer. He turned back to look at the grave of his mother again. _Crack._ He looked around again as he started to feel anxious.

“Is anybody there?” Again no answer.

Stiles pulled out his mobile and rushed to call Derek as he searched for shelter behind the large trunk of a tree. One free sign, two, three.

“Hey Sti…”

“I think you need to get here, Derek,” Stiles said with a frightened voice.

“Why? What is it? Where are you?”

“I’m at the graveyard, at my mom’s grave. There were cracks and I don’t know. Can you please come if there really is _something_?” He peered around the edge of the tree and let out a muffled cry. Eyes widened with fear, he hid behind the tree again.

“Stiles?” Derek asked worried.

“Giant… wolf… dog… thingy.”

“Like a hellhound?”

“Yeah...” He risked another glance around the stump. That big hairy thing was still there and apparently sniffed the gravestone of his mom. “I think it’s trying to catch a scent or something….”

“Don’t move. I’ll be there in a minute.”

*

About three and a half minute later, Derek turned up behind Stiles.

“Where is it?” He asked, which made Stiles jump.

“Dear God, couldn’t you give me a warning?” Stiles asked with a shocked, yet relieved expression.

“Sorry,” Derek said and then began to search the graveyard for the hellhound. “Where is it?” he asked again.

“Gone,” Stiles simply said, looking around the gravestones too. “I think it knew you’d come.”

Derek turned to the boy and eyed him with an appraising look.

“He didn’t attack you?”

“Do I look like it did?”

“No. Thank God.” Derek locked his arms around the frail torso of Stiles, kissing the top of his head.

“The Sourwolf’s worried?” Stiles said amused, looking up at Derek when their embrace broke apart.

“Yes,” Derek said deadpan. “It could have ripped you apart.”

“So could have Peter, Scott, Jackson, your Betas, the Alphas, the Siren and especially you. But I’m still here.” He reached out for the ends of the sleeves of Derek’s sweater, playing with the fabric.

“From now on, I want you to make sure that there’s always somebody of us near, either Scott, Isaac or me. I can’t leave you unprotected. Whenever I’ve got time I’ll keep an eye on you. Promise that you tell Isaac and Scott.”

“Sure,” Stiles said, irritated about Derek’s worries. “What about when I’m at home? I can’t ask Scott and Isaac to spend every evening with me.”

“Hm… true. Well… I’ve got things to do later, but I’ll be at yours tomorrow evening. I hope nothing happens until then.”

“It won’t,” Stiles tried to reassure Derek, but his voice shook slightly and Derek could sense that he wasn’t so sure of what he said.

*

“Hey De…” Stiles said as he turned around, meaning to find his boyfriend climbing into his bedroom through the window as he said yesterday, but he couldn’t finished his sentence. There, next to his bed, stood a giant wolf – a hellhound. Stiles fell from his chair, scrabbled back until his back hit the wall, unable to scream, to make any sound at all. All his senses focused onto the hellhound, who remained to stand next to his bed. Then, Stiles’ eyes slowly wandered around his room and found what they were looking for: his baseball bat. Unfortunately it stood to far away for him to take hold of it without getting up, and that would mean he risked it to get attacked by the hellhound. But Stiles couldn’t tell how long that creature would remain standing there, so he risked it. He jumped up, leapt aside to grab the bat and held it shielding before him at the hellhound. The creature bared his teeth and bent its legs, getting ready to leap at Stiles. It growled loudly and jumped forwards. Stiles saw his life fade before his eyes, but the expected pain did not come. He opened his eyes that he had closed in fear and a terrifying scene met his eyes. There was the hellhound, snapping after Derek who tried to prevail, but there was no doubt that the hellhound was too strong.

“Call… Scott,” Derek growled and Stiles hastily pulled out his mobile and called his best friend.

“Scott? Scott, you’re there?” Stiles asked with fear in his voice.

“What is it?” he asked, knowing that something must be wrong.

“Get here. My house. Bring Isaac and Cora and the others if you can.” There was no need for any more words, so he hung up. Immediately he was confronted with the battle before him again. Luckily his dad was at work so there was no chance he could get involved in this mess. But the fear for his dad was then replaced by his fear for Derek who still struggled to overwhelm the hellhound, but it was still too strong.

Stiles begged for Scott to hurry up and he also begged that he brought Isaac and Emily’s pack and Cora. He felt utterly weak, standing with his back to the door, the bat still clutched in his hand, unable to do anything than staring at the fight.

Suddenly there was a cry from Derek and blood dripped onto the carpet: the hellhound had bitten Derek’s arm. But Derek kept on fighting. Two minutes later the wound already healed. And then the doorbell rang.

Stiles rashly yanked open the door, stormed down the stairs and pulled open the front door. In front of it stood everyone: Scott, Isaac, Cora, Ethan, Aiden, Emily, Susanna, Jeremy, Eric and Maggy.

“Upstairs,” Stiles gasped unnecessarily since the werewolves could hear perfectly clear were Derek fought. Emily was the first one, together with Cora, to slip through the door beside Stiles; the other’s followed.

Stiles did not dare to follow them upstairs. He sat down at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, listening to the sounds of the fight upstairs. He wondered if all of them fitted into his room and if they could manage to kill the hellhound.

After ten more minutes, Isaac came downstairs and placed his hand on Stiles’ shoulder.

“It’s over.”

Stiles looked up at him, saw that his shirt was ripped and blood was squirted all over his face and upper body. Isaac looked at him with a guilty expression.

“And… your room’s wrecked.”

Stiles’ eyes widened and he stood up.

“Shit.” He repeated this curse on every step of the stairs. When he reached the corridor, he got a foretaste of what was to come: blood was splattered over the wall that faced his bedroom door.

“SHIT!”

All the other werewolves stood in the corridor except for Derek who stood in the door frame, arms folded before his chest. All of them were smeared with the blood of the hellhound, the clothes of some of them were ripped like Isaac’s. Stiles moved forwards, finally standing before his bedroom.

The teen was lost for words. If he didn’t know that he stood before his room he wouldn’t have known. In the middle of the room laid the hellhound – his head ripped off. A great puddle of blood had flooded from his deadly injury and had soaked into the carpet. The covers of his bed laid next to it, the filling of the mattress welled up, most of his clutter that once filled the shelves lay scattered on the ground and the posters on the walls hung down somberly.

“Was it necessary to tear my bedroom apart?”

“We couldn’t know that the hellhound would turn up in your bedroom, Stiles,” Derek said. The boy turned around to face Derek and saw the other’s looking at him through the door.

“We’re sorry, dude,” Scott said and gave him a look similar to the one Isaac gave him earlier.

“Well… at least that freaking wolf is dead… on _my_ floor, but dead. Can you at least help me cleaning up before my dad comes home?”

Scott shot his best friend an amused look despite the terror they had just gone through and started laughing.

“Maybe you should consider a makeover instead of a clean-up.”


	5. Chapter 5

,„Will there ever be one week where we don’t have to fight an Alpha pack or a Siren or a                                              hellhound or a Darach or something worse?” Scott whispered to Stiles during one of their classes.

“Be glad we’ve got Derek and Emily’s pack ‘round,” he whispered back, only to be addressed by the teacher the next moment, so he turned back to the front of the class. But Scott leaned forwards and spoke again.

“I can’t imagine they’ll stay here, Eric and them. I bet they’ve got their own things in Chicago going on.”

Stiles didn’t dared to answer because the teacher already admonished him three times this lesson, so he kept his mouth shut, but only because the end of the lesson was just five minutes away.

When the bell finally rang, he turned around to look at Scott again.

“Derek told me that Emily promised Cora to help her if she’s in trouble and because Derek’s her brother and he’s in trouble, she’s in trouble.”

Scott stuffed his things into his bag and shouldered it, ready to leave for home, but waited next to Stiles desk because Stiles would give him a ride since his motorbike just broke down yesterday.

As they walked through the corridors, Allison joined them, smiling brightly.

“Double date today,” she said as she linked arms with Scott. “Lydia asked me if I’m in the mood for it and I agreed. Is that okay for you? We can still cancel it if you don’t want to go.”

“No!” Scott said repulsing like he always did when Allison asked him a favor, which made Stiles roll his eyes. “No, that sounds great. Where’re we going?”

“Bowling alley,” Allison chatted happily as if it was the best thing to do in the world. “Around eight if there’s an alley free, but I’ll give you a call if something changes.”

They went down the stairs in front of the building and Allison bid goodbye to them, climbed into her car and drove off. The boys then got into Stiles’ jeep.

“Why doesn’t she give you a lift?” Stiles asked, still slightly annoyed.

“She lives at the exact opposite side of town, Stiles.”

“But that didn’t stop her before, dude. You two would definitely have more fun than us two.”

Scott frowned at his best friend and bopped Stiles’ arm with his fist.

“Don’t be such a gloomster. Call Derek to cheer you up,” Scott said with a mischievous smile.

“He’s not there to be my poodle. Plus he’s busy today.”

“So Isaac’s with you?” Scott asked, regarding the plan of guardians for Stiles.

“Yes. He’ll drop by around five.”

They stopped before Scott’s house but he spoke again before he got out.

“Isn’t it a bit annoying to be surrounded by someone 24/7?”

Stiles inhaled audible and gave Scott a look that said ‘You really asked that question?’.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Scott said and hopped out. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Have fun tonight.” Scott went up to the front porch and waved him, and Stiles drove off. “Definitely more fun then I’ll have today…”

*

At five p.m. sharp, the doorbell rang. Stiles already stood at the tread of steps but his dad had been faster, since he had been downstairs, and opened the door.

“Hey Mr. Stilinski,” Isaac greeted the sheriff with a handshake.

“Hello Isaac. How’s school going?”

“Alright. Thanks for asking.” Isaac then got away from Stiles’ dad and went up the stairs to him.

“You’re such a bootlicker, Isaac,” Stiles said, turned his back to Isaac and went into his room, letting himself fall onto his chair.

“Command of Derek,” he said apologizing, pacing the room. “He said that we can’t afford it to piss your dad off or we wouldn’t able to keep an eye on you… well, at least not in an easy way.”

Stiles rolled his eyes and turned around to face his desk, continuing his homework. Just a couple of days had passed since Derek set up the plan to guard him every day, all day, and it already was a huge annoyance. But Stiles didn’t complain, at least not in front of Derek, because it must have been enormous overcoming for him to admit that he cared for somebody at last.

After some minutes, Isaac coughed slightly.

“Uhm… Stiles?”

“Yes?” Stiles replied, not looking up from his homework.

“Can I watch TV or something?”

Now Stiles had to turn around. Isaac stood beside his bed, hands in the pockets at the back of his jeans, eying him appraisingly.

“Sure, be my guest,” Stiles said, hardly holding back his temper, pointing at his bedside table where the TV remote laid.

“Thanks.”

The next half-hour, Stiles tried his best to finish his homework, but with the sounds of the TV in the background, it was rather hard to concentrate. Finally, he gave up.

Isaac watched some documentation about catastrophes that had happened to the earth and didn’t even look up as Stiles turned around.

“Isaac?” Stiles spoke after some minutes of watching the documentation.

“Mhm?” he said without looking away from the TV.

“Could we watch something… less devastating?”

Isaac eventually looked up at Stiles, but his eyes did not seem to see him.

“Sorry, come again?”

“It would be cool if we can watch something that doesn’t remind me of death,” Stiles said deadpan.

“Oh… sure.”

*

From: Stiles

To: Sourwolf

Isaac peeves. he talks about allison and scott 24/7 >:(

8.24 p.m.

 

Stiles tugged his mobile away as he wasn’t expecting a fast answer from his boyfriend and looked at Isaac again.

“… and so I said ‘I don’t care if you know him longer’ and she just gave me a look of complete disbelief and began to tell me…”

“ISAAC!” Stiles cried out, grinding his teeth. “I _don’t_ care about your problems with Allison, how often do I have to tell you?”

Isaac finally shut up, even though he opened his mouth again as to say something but seemed to think better of it.

“Thank you. If I have to be surrounded by you three days the week after school, it would be good start if I can at least finish my homework,” he said and gestured at the still open files on his desk.

Suddenly, Isaac sat up alarmed.

“Something wrong?” Stiles asked curious.

“Derek,” Isaac only gasped and sprinted out of Stiles’ room. The teen ran after him, down the stairs and out onto the front porch and yelled: “What the hell is wrong? We’re you going?”

But Isaac was gone.

Meanwhile at the Bowling Alley, Allison and Lydia looked at each other in complete bewilderment since both their boyfriends just stormed out of the building without another word.

Allison turned to her best friend and gave her an uneasy look.

“I think I know what that means… somebody of them is in danger.”

“Who do you think it is?”

“I don’t know, but I’d guess it’s Derek…”

In that moment, on the other side of town, Stiles got into his Jeep, his new aluminum baseball bat thrown onto the passenger seat, and started the engine. He had desperately tried to call Derek a couple of times after Isaac had departed, but it had been no use. And because he _knew_ that Derek was definitely in trouble, he couldn’t sit down and wait in his bedroom, he just couldn’t. So now he was on his way to Derek’s loft because… where else to start?

He drove as fast as he could, not caring about the risk to be caught speeding. Some minutes later, he came to a halt in front of Derek’s building with squealing tires, grabbed his bat and sped up to Derek’s loft, but as he pushed open the staircase’s door, he instantly knew neither Derek nor Isaac were here. No sounds got through the metal front door of Derek’s loft, no screams, no movements from a fight.

In the blink of an eye he was in his Jeep again, backing out of the parking lot, now speeding in the opposite direction towards Derek’s old home. Stiles couldn’t imagine why he would be there, but he couldn’t think of any other spot. Just as he entered the preserve, his mobile ringed. He fished it out of his pocket and answered it without looking for who called.

“Yeah?” he asked breathlessly, driving around a corner rather too fast.

“We’re you going? I thought you were at home with Isaac?” Stiles recognized the worried voice of Lydia.

“I’m on the way to Derek’s old house,” Stiles explained, taking another corner.

“NO!” Lydia cried out, making Stiles almost miss the next crossroad. “Stiles, get out of there, NOW! Derek’s in trouble but the others…”

“If he’s in trouble, I’m going more than ever.” The hung up and threw his phone onto the passenger seat. He put his foot down to get to Derek even faster, took the last corner to his house and jumped out of the Jeep, clutching the bat with both his hands.

The noise of the fighting was distinct even out here. Screams, roars and cries drowned each other in turns and just as Stiles approached the porch, someone crashed through the wooden wall next to the living door window, landing on all fours like a cat. As the other one looked up, Stiles saw that it was Scott.

“Stiles, what are you doing here?” Scott said, straightening up, shooting worried glances at the hole in the wall at the fight inside the house.

“Helping.”

“No. No, no, no. Get back. We can handle it.” Scott leapt forward and jumped through the hole back inside the house, leaving Stiles outside, shouting “I’m not going anywhere!” after him.

Clutching his baseball bat still tighter, Stiles approached the front door, kicked it open and sneaked inside.

The scene he was confronted with made his gasp for air. It took him a while to perceive the eleven werewolves, who were fighting against three very big, very furious looking men, their faces distorted in anger, growling loudly. It was clear that even though the werewolves were in the majority, five of them were only as strong as one of the Berserkers. They attacked them in packs, trying to confuse them, but it wasn’t any real help.

Just then, Stiles noticed a thin line of black powder crossing the living room from one side to another. On one of the sides stood ten of the werewolves, on the other just one: Eric. Stiles knew that none of the werewolves could cross the line, at least not without tremendous strain, like Scott once managed to. The Berserkers however, seemed to have no problem crossing the line. The werewolves were still able to deflect the Berserkers’ attention from Eric, who would have stood no chance if they attacked him.

Stiles sensed his chance. He stepped forward into the living room.

“Over here, you big great prat,” Stiles shouted and all of the eyes turned on him. He saw Derek’s eyes widen in shock and darting forwards at him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he growled, pushing Stiles back towards the front door. “Get out. OUT!” And he returned to the battle.

And then Stiles noticed that his interference in the fight seemed to have brought the Berserkers to their mind. They turned around, back over the line where the werewolves couldn’t attack them, and swooped down at Eric. A cry of fear escaped him as their hands closed around him. Another cry made Stiles look around.

Cora was screaming, shouting, approaching the line of Mountain Ash, but Emily and Derek each took hold of one of her arms and held her back.

“We can’t do anything,” Emily said in a tearful voice. Now all of them stood still. Emily and Derek clutching Cora’s arms, Stiles clutching his bat.

Suddenly, blood splattered over the wall behind Eric. Cora now screamed in fury, struggled free and approached the Mountain Ash line. Certainly she couldn’t get through and was blasted backwards with a bang. Right then, the Berserkers turned back around, letting go off Eric who crumbled to the floor, head crushed, and attacked again. Cora’s screaming had attracted the Berserkers attention so much they headed for her straight away. Owing to their protective instinct, the other werewolves tried to get the Berserkers away from her. Stiles’ eyes were not able to follow their motions, their jumps from left to right, up and down.

All of a sudden, the werewolves turned around towards Derek. A Berserker stood behind him, holding him by his neck, Derek’s head bent in a most unnatural angle.

“NO!” Stiles cried, speeding towards the limp body of his boyfriend that now fell from the grip of the Berserker, ready to fight him, even if he himself would die. Midway he was held back by someone who pressed with all his might against his chest. “Let… go… let me… no!” Stiles screamed, drawing the attention of the Berserkers on him, but he didn’t care. If Derek was dead, what was his life worth anymore?

“Stiles! Quiet!” the person who held him back said so quietly that only he could hear. He noticed it wasn’t Scott, or Isaac or one of the males at all. It was Maggy, the youngest of Emily’s pack. She pushed him back into the hallway behind the staircase, pressing him hard against the wall. “Stay. Here. Keep. Quiet.” She looked dead serious into his eyes and even though he got to know her as a shy girl, he couldn’t do but obey. “I’ll get Derek here.” She sneaked back into the living room, waited until the Berserkers were busy dealing with the others, and dragged Derek off to where Stiles stood, still pinned to the wall. She straightened up and looked at Stiles and seeing his shocked expression, she said: “He’ll be alright, Stiles. He’s a werewolf, he’ll heal. He’d rather be trampled to death by them… but keep an eye on him. When he awakes, he needs to lay still for a couple more minutes because his neck won’t be completely healed when he’s conscious again, so hold him down, will you?”

“Yeah,” Stiles said lamely, eyes staring at Derek’s broken neck. Then Maggy turned on her heels and got right back into the fight.

Second after second, minute after minute passed, and the more time passed, the more anxious Stiles became that Derek wouldn’t wake up. His eyes were fixed on Derek’s face, his hands holding the older man’s one. His breathing became heavier and heavier and the rushing of his blood in his ears began to block out every other sound.

“No, not now,” Stiles whispered to himself and looked back down at Derek. “Come on…. Come on Derek… wake up…”

Just at that moment, Derek’s eyes fluttered open and a groan escaped his mouth. His eyes looked around, found Stiles’ and focused.

“Wha’ happ’nd?” he said barely audible, grasping Stiles’ hands who still clutched his.

“One of them broke your neck. Oh, thank God you healed,” Stiles said relieved.

“I… have to get back. I have to help them,” Derek said, his voice getting steadier again, attempting to push himself up, but Stiles pressed him back down.

“Maggy said you need a few more minutes rest. It sounded as if she had experience with this stuff.”

For some moments, Derek continued to press against Stiles’ hands, but then he let himself fall back onto the floor.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” Derek said and the worry in his voice and eyes was more than conspicuous.

“You’d have wanted me to stay home while you get slayed in a fight with some mad supernatural creatures like those? You’d have done the same for me, so you cannot _not_ expect me to turn up.”

A small smile twitched on one corner of Derek’s mouth.

“Pighead.”

“I think you’re ok, insulting me and all…” Stiles said amused, relieved and happy. Now he let Derek push himself into a sitting position. “Please don’t get killed again, Derek,” he added, taking hold of Derek’s hand, entwining their fingers.

“I’ll try my best,” Derek promised, squeezing Stiles’ hand, lifting one corner of his mouth. “But promise you’ll stay out of the fight.”

“Alright.”

Both stood up and Derek pressed a quick kiss on Stiles’ forehead before he returned to the fight. Stiles gazed after him and just then noticed that one of the Berserker laid next to Eric, apparently dead. And with Derek back in the fight, the werewolves were back in majority, compared by strength.

Stiles picked up his baseball bat again just as a precaution, but he stayed behind the stairs, peeking through the handrail as he had promised Derek. The werewolves seemed to have gathered power and developed a technique on how to kill the Berserkers. Most of them were badly injured, or at least had been at some point, telling from the amount of blood on their clothes, but maybe it was the Berserker’s, Stiles couldn’t tell.

The time had appeared to stand still and fly by faster than usual at the same time, because in the blink of an eye that felt like two hours to Stiles, the fight was over and the Berserkers dead. Stiles shook the stiffness out of his limps and stepped into the living room.

The line of Mountain Ash had been broken during the fight and Cora now kneeled next to Eric, her face buried in his chest, her fingers clutching his shirt, sobbing loudly. Emily kneeled beside her, padding her back, trying to sooth her with soft words.

The others stood aside, Scott and Isaac looking at each other relieved, Jeremy holding Maggy, Susanna sitting on the floor with her back to the wall, her face buried in her hands, Aiden and Ethan standing side by side, not knowing what to do, and Derek watching Cora with a hurtful expression. Stiles positioned himself next to him.

For a long time, no other sound than Cora’s sobs and Emily’s whispers filled the room. Eventually, Emily stands up and looks at Derek.

“Derek… we have to get back to Chicago.”

“Oh… kay?”

“We need to get Eric back, back to his family, back to Chicago. I wish, I really wish we could stay longer to help you, but I think the worst is over, and given Eric’s death, it will be best for my pack to return to Chicago and calm down. We’ll take Cora with us so she can bid farewell to him in a better way than she could if she stayed with you, but I leave it up to her if she wants to go back here afterwards or stay with my pack.”

Derek looked at Emily for a few moments, swallowed and said: “Alright.”

“Good luck,” Emily said and laid her hand on Derek’s upper arm. “Stay safe.”

Then she looked at Jeremy who picked up her gaze and nodded. He let go off Maggy and trotted over to Eric’s body. Cora looked around at him, wiping the tears off her face and stood up. He shoved his arms under Eric and lifted him up.

“Let’s go,” Emily said and she and her pack headed for the hole in the wall. Just before they were out of earshot, Derek called after them.

“Thanks… for everything.”

Emily looked around with a faint smile and then they got off.

“What are we gonna do with those?” Stiles asked after a moment, looking at the Berserkers.

“Burn them,” Derek simply said turning around, and began to drag one of them outside.

*

The fire crackled before them and even though there was nothing of the Berserkers left, they continued to stand around it.

“So what now?” Stiles whispered, searching for Derek’s fingers.

“I think I’ll have to repair that hole.”

Stiles laughed out loud, the fear of the last hours falling off of him.

“You can’t be serious. That house is beyond remedy.”

“Stiles?” Derek growled, but in an amused fashion.

“All right, I’ll just shut up,” Stiles said grinning, intensifying the grip of his fingers around Derek’s. 


End file.
